As Good As It Gets

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

After watching three different Ozon's movies, from disappointing Regarde la meer, interesting Swimming Pool (with unexplained twists in the plot that resulted with endless threads on it's IMDb board similar to Lynch's movies, with posters trying to explain their own visions and explanations and compare it to others) and great 8 femmes, this movie is again returning me almost to the beginning.Unlike Swimming Pool this movie doesn't make me ask what has happened (or even who is who, what is a dream and what is reality) but what is the point, why was it made the way it was and finally why was it made at all.The problem of understanding the movie begins and starts with the time-line. I don't believe that movie must have a straight time-line, flashbacks are ancient movie figures, movies that start with end and then tell the story from the beginning as well. Drops of memory from forgotten past can be irritating, but sometimes, if making a point, they add special spice to the movie (i.e. Unknown). Sometimes even false flashback parts (intentional lies that the narrator or main character tells us, i.e. Usual Suspects, or uncontrolled hallucinations in coma, i.e. La boite noire) won't spoil but make a great movie in hands of great author. Moribund agony can be also shown as straight time-line that we believe is real till the last scene (Alice ou la derniére fugue) or almost random mix of reality and nightmares (Jacob's Ladder), giving us great experiences. Even combination of converging straight and reverse time-line, as an experiment, appeared to be a masterpiece (Memento). But all of these movies have a story to tell and a point that justifies the time-line interventions.We have a kind of reverse time-line in 5x2, but not complete (as if you take a movie from ending credits and play it backward). It is made as if somebody mixed the film reels (do you remember film reels? Movie was cut in several reels and once a reel ended a new reel had to be placed on the projector; if the theater was poor and had only one projector the audience had to wait till it was done) and showed it in reverse order.Once we get used to it (the title helps us and after third leap backward we expect that we have two more to come) it makes no problems. The problem appears when a long, long scene (two lovers swimming into the open sea) announces the end of the movie. If there was at least one single ending scene from "normal" time, that would encircle the story, or if there, at the most distant period, happened anything important for the later and final scenes, we could accept that this unusual time-line had a meaning. But I haven't seen anything to justify, let alone praise for the procedure.What is maybe the worst thing is the fact that 5x2 isn't a bad movie at all. If Ozon didn't play with time periods it would be a good, not too original but well played story about an unsuccessful relation/marriage from beginning to its end, presented through several important moments in their life. Yes, there was Bergman doing it and doing it much better, but how many Bergmans can one history have? Unfortunately, Ozon won't be remembered as a man who made his version of Bergman's tales, and if he'll be lucky he won't be remembered after this movie at all. In my mind he will stay an author of 8 femmes, movie that puts Coen brothers kind of plot into Tennessee Williams characters and background. (Interesting: Ozon wrote screenplay for all of those so different movies.)

Good movie. Serious. I like it. And the scenario is very good. Music is super! i've downloaded soundtrack... By submitting this comment you are agreeing to the terms laid out in our Copyright Statement. Your submission must be your own original work. Your comments will normally be posted on the site within 2-3 business days. Comments that do not meet the guidelines will not be posted. Please write in English only. HTML or boards mark-up is not supported though paragraph breaks will be inserted if you leave a blank line between paragraph. By submitting this comment you are agreeing to the terms laid out in our Copyright Statement. Your submission must be your own original work. Your comments will normally be posted on the site within 2-3 business days. Comments that do not meet the guidelines will not be posted. Please write in English only. HTML or boards mark-up is not supported though paragraph breaks will be inserted if you leave a blank line between paragraph.

OK, so the reverse story-telling is a gimmick, and not even a new one, though it undeniably heightens the complexity and surprises of Gilles+Marion's "love story". But in 5x2 -- a vivisection of modern marriage -- Ozon's fans won't be let down. His trademarks are there: the fascination/disgust with romantic love, marriage and family life (q.v. his entire filmography!); the unconventional sex scenes; his talent for creating wonderful female characters; his gift with actors (everybody's fine in 5x2, but Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi is a knock-out); and his ability to skilfully integrate image, dialog, music, drama and humor. 5x2 is about the (im)possibility of love, marriage and family life in the 2000s. All couples are troubled: the protagonists Gilles and Marion; Gilles and former girlfriend Valérie; Marion's parents (who at the end/ start of the film, no longer speak to each other); and the gay couple (Gilles' elder brother and his very young lover), who are loving and tender but lead mostly independent lives and don't have sex (with each other, that is). In 5x2, love and sex are sharply distinct: Marion & Gilles are constantly avoiding sex, and the only time Ozon actually shows them at it is in the desperate post-divorce "rape" scene. In another scene, Gilles talks about the night he "proved" his love for Marion when he indulged in a bi-sexual orgy at her request (she watched but didn't join in). Gilles' ex-girlfriend Valérie is only turned on by the thought of Gilles cheating on her. We are told that the "happy" gay couple have a platonic relationship. And the only time we hear "je t'aime" in the film is from Marion to a totally drunk Gilles -- who's asleep and can't hear her -- right after cheating on him on their wedding night with a total stranger.Ozon includes long scenes of divorce and marriage rituals. He wants us to pay particular attention to contrast between the misleading simplicity of a marriage bond and the labyrinthine complexity of a divorce contract-- as if saying that something must be wrong with an institution that evolves from the brevity of a "fidelity, support and care" vow at the wedding ceremony to the intricate, endless clauses involving division of properties, alimony, insurance, children's custody, visiting rights, etc at the divorce procedure (not to mention the need for lawyers!).Whether you'll like (or dislike, or remain indifferent to) 5x2 will probably depend on your own love-life experience and your (dis)belief in romantic love, marriage and family life. This is crucial in your interpretation of the last (first) scene at the Italian resort: if you're an optimist/romantic, you'll be sensitive to the eternal magic of falling in love, no matter if it may eventually bring suffering; if you're cynical/sarcastic, you'll perhaps giggle at the postcard scene of two people falling in love out of boredom and loneliness spiced up by a beautiful scenery, only to be inevitably crushed by the bleak reality of marriage and family life -- please notice that the last time we see Marion and Gilles happy is at their wedding party.The soundtrack includes great Italian love songs from the 1960s ("Ho Capito che ti Amo", "Una Lacrima sul Viso", "Mi Sono Innamorato di Te" etc): these are some of the most shamelessly romantic lyrics ever written, spelling out for Marion and Gilles the feelings they don't know how to articulate to each other (or to themselves). 5x2 ends with Paolo Conte's "Sparring Partner", and we can see Ozon slyly winking at the audience: he's closing a movie about the difficulties of marriage with a song that compares married people to, well, "sparring partners". Though there are undeniable similarities to Staley Donen's "Two for the Road", 5x2 looks to me as a turbinated, updated Rohmerian "Moral Tale": Ozon creates a similarly masterful mix of drama and irony, using similarly arbitrary twists of love and fate on similarly self-absorbed characters, recalling Rohmer's classic lesson on how vacation and lovely landscapes can push romantic buttons in all of us (think of "Le Genou de Claire", "Pauline à la Plage", "Le Rayon Vert", the 4 seasons Tales, etc). We can thank our favorite Gallic saints that, given Ozon's talent for drama, he's such a playful, cool, witty guy, who welcomes both romantics and cynics in his scripts as well as in his audience.

It is worth seeing this film both forward and backward. It's interesting how it changes when you see the events "in order".*spoiler alert* When I first saw it, I was inclined to think that Gilles was a total ass and the cause of all the problems with the relation ship. After seeing it again, watching the scenes in backward order some points become clear that make some of his unforgivable actions less hateful.Clearly, he knows that Marion had an affair, and conceived from it. This is why he did not come the the hospital when she is giving birth, and why he left as soon as he see the baby.